Once again, I don't have time to write a long and detailed review, so I'll try to sum my experience up. The show started about 20 minutes late, but the room was still almost empty. The thing is that on the tickets, it was written that the bands would start at 10:00 pm, but the time was changed to 8:30, so I guess that many people arrived only in time for Brutal Truth thinking that the show was about to start. Anyway, the people who were informed of the new starting time (myself included) saw local openers Powercup play. They're a powerviolence/grindcore duo with lyrics themed around renovation. Their music is a bit generic, but they had some fun moments, especially the last song they played. It was pretty brutal. At some point also, one of the singers from Soil of Ignorance, a grindcore band from Quebec City, came to sing with them. Powercup's show was also pretty funny; the guitarist/vocalist kept making crazy faces and moving like an idiot. Some of his vocals were ridiculous too.

The next band that was supposed to play was actually Dropdead and I was really looking forward to see them, but unfortunately they had to drop off some dates of the tour for unknown reasons. The replacing band was the ontarian stoner-hardcores (in the style of Cancer Bats or Every Time I Die) Burning Love. I had recently seen them open for Converge and I had moderately liked them. They were better this time, probably because of the sound, which was more raw and heavy. They had some really fun riffs and the bassist has an awesome Electric Wizard tattoo on his arm. The only problem is that they were on the wrong bill. Most people in this grind craving crowd didn't seem to appreciate them that much. In the middle of their set, the frontman threw a water bottle and a shoe into the crowd to try to wake people up. Some times, he came down the stage and sang on the floor, but nothing would do the trick. Most of the audience stayed static, but they still got loud applause between the songs. Even if I was disappointed by not seeing Dropdead, I enjoyed Burning Love's show.

When Brutal Truth started their soundcheck, the place started to fill up seriously. Their soundcheck was actually very long, presumably because the band was drunk. Their prolonged set up forced them to cut a few songs at the end of their set, which explains the high percentage of new ones versus old ones (they kept the old classics for the end, but they realized to late that they had to finish). During that set up, Kevin Sharp and Dan Lilker kept begging the promoter for more alcohol on stage. When they finally started with their classic thrasher "Birth of Ignorance", things started to get serious. There were pits and a lot of headbanging. Brutal Truth were indeed very brutal and Kevin Sharp had a really funny stage presence. He kept making jokes, which made their performance even more enjoyable. The only other disappointing about their set, apart from the cut-off songs, was the sound. Dan Lilker was way too loud and I could barely hear the guitar. This made the plethora of recent, chaotic songs really hard to follow. Nonetheless, seeing these grindcore legends play was extremely fun. By the way, noting their setlist on my phone was hard as fuck. For about half of the songs, I wrote clues in the song structures or lyrics and I can assure you it's pretty much 100% correct. For Nasum though, I managed to take a picture of the paper setlist. The only songs I had to remember were the ones in the encore.

After a much more efficient change up, the swedish grind machine that is Nasum was ready to be unleashed upon the Montreal crowd for the first and last time. They took the stage after a long war zone intro and immediately blasted into one of my favourite songs of theirs, "Mass Hypnosis". Human 2.0 is definitely my favourite Nasum record. In the begining, there were some sound problems: the vocals buried everything, and just like as when Brutal Truth played before them, the guitars were barely audible. Fortunately, these issues got fixed by the first third of their set. I moved up right in front of Jon Lindqvist's amp and the sound was crushing. Their songs were incredibly violent live and really did justice to the studio recordings. Keijo also did an excellent job in imitating Mieszko's (R.I.P.) characteristic screams. The band also had tons of energy and they seemed to have a blast on stage. The only disappointment for me was the crowd reaction. I mean, people wer excited, there was a lot of screaming, some headbanging and moshing, but I was expecting something much wilder. There weren't a lot of pits with more than 10-15 people in them (myself included), but still, it was really fun because I had a lot of space to move. I moved a lot, but I lacked energy due to my lack of sleep (thanks to one of my friend's birthday party on saturday, plus the Meshuggah show on sunday). The crowd got pretty violent when they played "Inhale/Exhale"; there were a lot of stage dives and circle pits, but I wish that this violence would have lasted throughout the whole show and kept the Montreal reputation alive. Though the metal scene is pretty strong here, there aren't many grind fans in Montreal and most of them are over 30 years old (thus, they don't mosh). Anyway, even if they didn't mosh that much, the people there to see Nasum were still very enthusiastic. At the end, everyone chanted for them to come back and they played three more songs for us, giving a perfect end to this grinding night.

I bought Nasum (the Red Factories one) and Brutal Truth (the Religion one) shirts, both 15$. I can't wait to see how the MDF crowd will respond to them.

Brutal Truth

Birth of Ignorance
Stench of Profit
Sugardaddy
Get a Therapist Spare the World
Malice
Simple Math
End Time
Fuck Cancer
Celebratory Gunfire
Small Talk
Evolution Through Revolution
Collateral Damage
Addicted
Godplayer
Walking Corpse
Time

Nasum

Mass Hypnosis
This Is...
The Masked Face
Scoop
Bullshit
Relics
Shadows
Corrosion
Multinational Murders Network
Parting Is Such a Sweet Sorrow
The Smallest Man
The Professional League
A Welcome Breeze of Stinking Air
I See Lies
No Sign of Improvement
Tested
Time to Act!
The Black Swarm
Circle of Defeat
Closer to the End
Fury
Wrath
I Hate People
Inhale/Exhale